The amniotic fluid-derived cells: the biomedical challenge for the third millennium.

Human amniotic fluid cells (H-AFC) have been used as a diagnostic tool for the prenatal diagnosis of fetal genetic anomalies for more than 50 years.In the early 1990s small nucleated cells, which were identified as he-matopoietic progenitors, were detected in the amniotic fluid. After this evidence several other scientific novelties as been brought out to the attention of the scientific community. In these brief history of the Human amniotic fluid cells (H-AFC) the last but not least evidence, provided in the last 5 years, suggests that they can also harbor a therapeutic potential for human diseases.